An unfortunate title (does nature do click bait now?). Why use the term dwarf instead of quoting the numeric value (or say "more than double")?
8 million -> 13 million metric tons (+60% increase) of Methane seems like a big jump.
Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
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Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#12This is so sad. Any ideas on how stuff like this could realistically be fixed? Are there any incentives that could be put in place? What would be the incentive for the people that have that power to make those changes?
Carbon tax
Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is already incentive for the private operators to not lose these gases during production or transmission as it cuts into their margins. This is like leaving money on the table.
That's not necessarily true, though, if capturing it costs more than just letting it leak.
I am not saying there are really no bad or incompetent actors.. but it costs the industry $2 billion per year because of these loses.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/climate/methane-leaks.htm...
Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#14To anyone reading "“tremendous opportunity” to reduce methane emissions by developing systems to quickly detect malfunctions at oil and gas facilities" and running to the garage to connect an RPI to an off-the-shelf 5$ sensor and submit her YC2019 application: The tech is there. It's been there for years. Everything is in place, this is a political/emission tax/EPA/incentive issue per-se.
Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#15To anyone reading "“tremendous opportunity” to reduce methane emissions by developing systems to quickly detect malfunctions at oil and gas facilities" and running to the garage to connect an RPI to an off-the-shelf 5$ sensor and submit her YC2019 application: The tech is there. It's been there for years. Everything is in place, this is a political/emission tax/EPA/incentive issue per-se.
I was just thinking about this in reference to organizations like the Citizen's Climate Lobby. The real technology that needs to be developed here is a politically feasible way to levy taxes on known carbon emitters.
Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#16Well the regular government really dropped the ball there, fortunately the dwarf government was more vigilant.
Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not necessarily true, though, if capturing it costs more than just letting it leak.
I am not saying there are really no bad or incompetent actors.. but it costs the industry $2 billion per year because of these loses. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/climate/methane-leaks.htm...
And if they could fix that for $1B/year, they'd do so.
Instead, you can find industry groups quoted in that article complaining about the study.
Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#18To anyone reading "“tremendous opportunity” to reduce methane emissions by developing systems to quickly detect malfunctions at oil and gas facilities" and running to the garage to connect an RPI to an off-the-shelf 5$ sensor and submit her YC2019 application: The tech is there. It's been there for years. Everything is in place, this is a political/emission tax/EPA/incentive issue per-se.
I was just thinking about this in reference to organizations like the Citizen's Climate Lobby. The real technology that needs to be developed here is a politically feasible way to levy taxes on known carbon emitters.
Run for office or support candidates who align with preventing/mitigating climate change. It is the only way. All of the tech in the world is useless if you can't enforce its use.
Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#19For folks who didn't read the article, the real problem is that methane is much more efficient a greenhouse gas at trapping heat compared to CO2: by some estimates, 86 TIMES more potent.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-bad-of-a-gree...
Re: Methane leaks from US gas fields dwarf government estimates
#20An unfortunate title (does nature do click bait now?). Why use the term dwarf instead of quoting the numeric value (or say "more than double")?
Shouldn't the correct title be "New methane leak estimate dwarfs government estimates"
From the article...
"They then extrapolated the figures to estimate methane leaks at the national level."